yet still more MX and first time off sports setting.

amadeus · August 11, 2008

As I've said before if I spend every sunday for the rest of my life at a motocross track, it would suit me fine. within reason of course but this weekend I spent both saturday and sunday as they had open practice saturday. I was free to attend having wussed out of my scheduled dual sport ride so I figured I'd go to Saturdays open practice and..practice.

I was going to bring my own bike but I chickened out. long story...

so with the past tips and advice fresh in my ears I ventured out and away from the safe confines of the sports setting. just a few random ones that I like and not so like and some of my own observations. all were either on S prioroty or a few on sports. OK I did experiment but I did get a little anxious and wanted to make sure I came home with something.

comments welcome. and thanks to all who've offered advice.

first one, and I like it, 250 shutter speed. my gripe is that you lose some of the crispness of a fast shutter.

amadeus · August 11, 2008

another 250 shutter but I came to find that 250 in strong light can tend to allow the sun to wash it a bit. all of these are untouched.

amadeus · August 11, 2008

all of these seem to be ISO 200, as I'm reading the info on smugmug. I have to load my Nikon Picture Project so I can read this stuff right from the PC.

125 Shutter speed, I was after all experimenting.

I can live with it. And he's local and I've informed him I'm "sponsoring him".

another story..

amadeus · August 11, 2008

and here we go with a 400 shutter, much more to my liking.

and I'll admit better than the 800-1000 I'd be getting in sports mode.

amadeus · August 11, 2008

now this one is pretty good and I'm surprised to see only a 160 shutter. I must have been panning because the clarity is decent.

amadeus · August 11, 2008

I'm shocked that this is also 160, as I've kind of shyed away from jumps.

1. because I dont want someone hamming it up when they see a camera and crashing, and 2, focus tends to be hard to nail.

I can live with it..

amadeus · August 11, 2008

old reliable 1000. must have switched to sports setting.

I actually printed this one Saturday night and gave it to her on Sunday. She was quite surprised and pleased.

amadeus · August 11, 2008

when #57 hits the track it is stand back and enjoy the show.

He is that good and he was absolutely blistering it on Saturday.

both on 160, I think the 160 is iffy unless you really have it timed right, but these are OK.

amadeus · August 11, 2008

I'm finding the last 2 a little curious because one is 160 and one is 500 and I'm a little surprised of the similarity.

this next ones the 500.

comments appreciated.

jonh68 · August 11, 2008

Unless the action is parallel to you and you pan, slow shutter speeds for sports is distracting. IMHO, you seem to be making this WAY too hard for yourself. Get between the sun and the subject and shoot. Backlit is OK in some cases. In outdoor light, put in A mode and select the sharpest setting for your lens or open it wide open in bad light.

nipprdog · August 11, 2008

amadeus wrote:

all of these seem to be ISO 200, as I'm reading the info on smugmug. I have to load my Nikon Picture Project so I can read this stuff right from the PC.

Are you saying you don't know what settings you're using?

2whlrcr · August 11, 2008

Congratulations, you're on your way to really learning your camera and how the settings interact with each other. It's little hard to critique without all of the EXIF information. Don't forget you can also adjust your ISO setting, independent of shutter priority for more flexibility.

Obviously you are free to go for whatever look you're looking for. From what you have posted so far, I would suggest shooting somewhere between 500-750 shutter speed. This will give you a little bit more blur of the wheels and spokes than your sports mode. Plus it give you more keepers, because panning is not as important, than at 125.

I find anytime I'm shooting less than 250, my missed shot rate goes up. Expert panning becomes more important. But the ones you do get are nice. Shutter speeds and panning can change dramatically, based on individual rider speed and at what angle they are to the camera.

You should also try some really low shutter speeds of 15-80 to see what kind of effects you get. Again there will be a lot of junk, but the keepers can be really nice. Beware, if you are trying to sell photos, a lot of riders don't like these, even though the photographers do.

2whlrcr · August 11, 2008

nipprdog wrote:

Are you saying you don't know what settings you're using?

He's new and just learning, give him a break. Heck we had to beg him to get off the auto modes and start shooting manually or with single priorities.

nipprdog · August 11, 2008

2whlrcr wrote:

He's new and just learning,

No, he's not new. Been here for 4 years.

And I have enjoyed his pics of the vintage MX series, since I'm old school.

Actually, we had to beg him to quit posting 1200 pixel images.

2whlrcr · August 11, 2008

nipprdog wrote:

No, he's not new. Been here for 4 years.

Actually, we had to beg him to quit posting 1200 pixel images.

Yea, I'm glad I can see more than 25% of his photos on my monitor now.

ian408 · August 12, 2008

Hey Scott, these are looking pretty good. What you're seeing, at least I think, is more poor panning technique--give it time. You'll get that. the first shot you posted is pretty nice.

Nicely done.

lukaitis photo · August 12, 2008

amadeus wrote:

I'm shocked that this is also 160, as I've kind of shyed away from jumps.

1. because I dont want someone hamming it up when they see a camera and crashing, and 2, focus tends to be hard to nail.

I can live with it..

I like this one the best....he has one of my stickers on his chest protector (Lukaitis Photo) Seriously, nice work I think it's cool to see you stuff getting better with each post.

DJ-S1 · August 12, 2008

nipprdog wrote:

No, he's not new. Been here for 4 years.

New to dSLRs, but progressing quickly by the looks of it. Good stuff, Amadeus.

amadeus · August 12, 2008

lukaitis photo wrote:

I like this one the best....he has one of my stickers on his chest protector (Lukaitis Photo) Seriously, nice work I think it's cool to see you stuff getting better with each post.

thanks! that was from Saturday.

things got serious on Sunday.

amadeus · August 12, 2008

DJ-S1 wrote:

New to dSLRs, but progressing quickly by the looks of it. Good stuff, Amadeus.

and thanks again!

amadeus · August 12, 2008

nipprdog wrote:

Are you saying you don't know what settings you're using?

I know what some of them are, but the damn thning has more settings than a nuclear mislle launch.

mercphoto · August 13, 2008

amadeus wrote:

I know what some of them are, but the damn thning has more settings than a nuclear mislle launch.

You should see how many settings a Canon 1-Series has.

Just the number of options related to auto-focus alone is immense.

I normally shot most of my MX in shutter-priority at 1/500 to 1/640, choosing an ISO that would get me an aperture around f/5.6, give or take. This shutter seemed fast enough to get the shot crisp, while slow enough to show *some* tire blur, although it was just a small amount. It was a balancing act between the crisp photos the riders liked and the motion blur I liked. I'll admit I had heard feedback that most riders thought my images were too "artistic" for their tastes. For them, the faster the shutter the better even if it meant the tires were frozen.

You're getting better, getting more comfortable, and venturing away from Sports mode. Now you'll start getting a feel for when you want or need a fast shutter, and when you'll want or need a slow shutter.

yet still more MX and first time off sports setting.

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